Syracuse University finances reveal pay bump for Jim Boeheim to $1.9 million

View full sizeDennis Nett / The Post-StandardSyracuse University head coach Jim Boeheim received a pay bump to $1.9 million, according to new tax forms filed by the university. The coach trails other top coaches nationwide.

Syracuse University basketball coach Jim Boeheim cemented his spot as the university’s top earner in 2010, getting a 33 percent raise in his base salary and receiving total compensation of $1.9 million, according to a document filed last week with the federal government.

The numbers were reported in the university’s Form 990, which nonprofit organizations must file with the Internal Revenue Service each year. The form details a wide range of university finances between July 1, 2010, and June 30, 2011.

In general, the document shows an institution continuing to recover from the global recession that sent the stock market — and the university’s investments — plummeting. Investments through SU’s endowment fund, for example, earned nearly $120 million in the fiscal year ending last June, compared to a gain of $106 million the previous year and a loss of nearly $239 million the year before that.

Because of the increased returns and a separate move to consolidate other long-term investments into the endowment fund, the amount of the university’s endowment increased by more than $270 million, to $890.6 million.

“Hopefully we’re making our comeback,” said Louis Marcoccia, SU’s executive vice president and chief financial officer. “We bottomed out in ’09 and now we’re heading back in the other direction.”

In calendar year 2010, the university reported, 555 employees earned at least $100,000, compared to 528 the previous year.

Boeheim’s 2010 earnings topped them all. They included an increase in his base pay from $1,186,225 to $1,577,523. He also received a $130,000 bonus — as he did the previous year, for advancing the team in the NCAA Tournament. And he received about $77,000 in insurance and a vehicle allowance and $40,000 in deferred compensation.

Most of Boeheim’s base salary was not paid directly by the university. Nearly two-thirds — $1 million —was paid by IMG Worldwide. IMG, a global sports, fashion and media business, contracts with SU for the rights to market its sports teams through radio play-by-play programming, coaches’ shows on radio and television, event marketing, game-day promotions, publications and Internet sponsorship, among other things.

Another $194,000 of Boeheim’s salary came from the Big Orange Basketball Camp, which the coach operates on campus during three weeks of the summer.

Boeheim’s total pay was significantly more than that of Chancellor Nancy Cantor. Cantor’s total compensation was listed as $1.18 million, but that is somewhat misleading. Her base salary for 2010 was $615,327, which reflected part of a self-imposed 10 percent pay cut during the 2010-11 fiscal year. She received another $276,976 that the university paid into a deferred retirement account that accrued over several years, beginning with her first contract in 2004. Most of those earnings have been reported previously.

And she accrued $100,000 in deferred compensation that she has yet to collect. Another $126,085 in reported compensation is largely due to a benefit she is required to accept — use of the residence at the chancellor’s house on campus and the Lubin House in New York City.

Football coach Doug Marrone was SU’s second-highest earner. He received a base salary of nearly $1.1 million — with $800,000 coming from IMG Worldwide and $11,986 from his summer football camp — and a $100,000 bonus. His total compensation added up to $1,259,576.

Marrone compiled a record of 4-8 in 2009, his first year and the year on which his bonus was based. The following year, the team went 8-5, including a victory over Kansas State in the Pinstripe Bowl.

Other high earners at SU in 2010 were Athletic Director Darryl Gross, with total compensation of $570,057; Marcoccia, $563,492; and Thomas J. Walsh, executive vice president for advancement and external affairs, $562,258.

Former Chancellor Kenneth Shaw, who retired as an SU professor at the end of 2010, was listed with a total compensation of $545,779. That amount included $149,824 in a deferred compensation retirement plan that has been reported in previous 990 forms.

Because of the timing, the tax form doesn’t reflect any impact from the school’s move to the Atlantic Coast Conference or the firing of associate head men’s basketball coach Bernie Fine.

In other highlights from the tax form:

- The Syracuse law firm of Bond, Schoeneck & King was the university’s highest paid contractor in fiscal 2010-11, earning $3.4 million, about the same as the previous year
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- The university provided $234.6 million in scholarships or financial aid, up from $219.8 million in the previous year.

- The university spent $451,385 on lobbying activities, with the vast bulk of that money being spent trying to influence public policy through direct contact with legislators, their staffs and other government officials. That was down slightly from the previous year.